Reliability analysis of a fuel cell electric city car

Automotive industry is seeking for a viable alternative to internal combustion engines, because of the increasing environmental concern, which suggests to intensify the search for cleaner and more efficient vehicles. Fuel cell electric vehicles are very promising on this respect, but the increased demands of consumers worldwide is satisfied only when the new vehicles are also less expensive to manufacture and operate. Reliability, availability and maintenance costs plays a very significant role in establishing the commercial success of the future vehicles. However, the not excellent reliability features of the fuel cells and of the energy storage devices, which are almost always used to achieve load levelling or to optimize the power flows, may represent a very critical issue. A detailed analysis of a fuel cell electric city car is shown in this paper, in order to give the reader a preliminary overview about its overall reliability and economic feasibility